Study on the organisation of doctoral programmes in EU neighbouring countries

Transcription

1 June 2010 Study on the organisation of doctoral programmes in EU neighbouring countries Serbia

2 General information on the study Framework Contract: N No EAC 19/06 Specific Contract: Order form N 110 Project Director: Isabelle Collins Project Manager: Elisabeth Zaparucha/ Philippe Larrue Tel. Number: Fax Number: elisabeth.zaparucha@technopolis-group.com The study was produced by a team of consultants within Technopolis Group (Lars Geschwind, Flora Giarracca, Jakob Hellman, Carlos Hinojosa, Pauline Mattsson) and GHK (Anca Dumitrescu). Valuable comments were received during the Steering Committees from: Claire Morel, Philippe Ruffio, Dimitris Kokkalis, Helene Skikos, Florent Bernard, Vanessa Debiais- Sainton, Marta Touykova, David Crosier.

3 Table of Contents 1. Doctoral programme data 1 2. Doctoral programme Doctoral programme overall organisation Doctoral programmes structure Doctoral programmes content Doctoral programmes process: admission, supervision, monitoring and assessment After the graduation 8 3. International collaboration, mobility and joint doctoral degrees International cooperation data Foreigners as doctoral candidates National doctoral candidates going abroad 9 4. Challenges and possible future policy actions 10 Figure 1 State universities with accredited doctoral programmes 1 Figure 2 List of interviewees 13 Study on the organisation of doctoral studies in EU neighbouring countries - Serbia i

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5 1. Doctoral programme data Serbia has three types of Higher Education Institutions (HEI): Universities, colleges of professional career studies and colleges of academic studies. Universities are the largest institutions. The status of university is granted if the institution offers academic study programs at all levels of studies, within at least three fields (natural sciences and mathematics, social and humanistic studies, medical science, technical and technological science, and arts). A university is composed of Faculties, Art Academies and sometimes Research institutes. The faculties are higher education institutions which carry out academic study programs and develop scientific, vocational, or artistic work in one or more areas. Faculties and art academies may also carry out vocational study programs. Faculties and art academies conduct legal affairs under the name of the university that they belong to, and under their own name, in accordance with the statute of the university 1. HEI are not entitled to have a title of universities unless they have doctoral programme in at least three disciplines. Private universities are lobbying in order to change this rule to attract more students. Serbia has 14 universities of which seven are State universities and seven are private universities (ALFA University 2, Megatrend University, European University, Singidumum University, University Union, University of Novi Pazar and E.Academy in Novi Sad). The seven State universities own 83 faculties. The doctoral programme in Serbia involve 13 universities out of the 14 universities. However, most of the research in done in four main universities: Belgrade, Novi Sad, Nis and Kragujevac ( Cf. Figure 1). - Population: 7.3m - GDP per capita: 4,657 - % of GDP spent on education: 4.7% - % of GDP spent on research: 0.34% (2007) - Doctoral candidates enrolled: 1, UNESCO IUS data Figure 1 State universities with accredited doctoral programmes Status Universities Acronym Number of accredited doctoral programmes State University of Belgrade UNBG 64 (44%) 331 State University of Novi Sad UNNS 49 (25%) 164 State University of Nis UNNI 20 (14%) 50 State University of Kragujevac UNKG 13 (9%) 55 State University of (Pristina) Kosovska Mitrovica UNKM 5 22 State State University of Novi Pazar DUNNP 3 Source: V. Dondour, 2010 PhD awarded in 2009 Research institutes exist as part of universities or independently. Researchers cannot mentor doctoral candidates if they belong to research institutes that are independent from universities since PhD studies are run only by universities Study on the organisation of doctoral studies in EU neighbouring countries - Serbia 1

6 According to the data from the Ministry of Science and Technology in Serbia there are 56 scientific institutions, completely independent from universities, that are predominantly engaged in research. Those institutions are not involved in education, even though many of them have scholars with Master degree or PhD 3. Some research institutes are part of Universities (The university of Belgrade has 11 research institutes and the university of Novi Sad two). There are not precise figures at the national level on doctoral candidates. The total number of students who completed post graduate studies and obtained master diplomas or doctoral is around 2,000 in the last couple of years Doctoral programme 2.1 Doctoral programme overall organisation The organisation of doctoral programme at the national level falls in the hands of several actors but the roles between them shall evolve in a near future. The ministry for Education 5, is by the law, in charge of the doctoral programmes. However, the ministry for Education do not fund doctoral programmes. The reason for that is mainly the budget constraint that let little room for manoeuvre. Indeed, 90% of the ministry of Education s budget is directed to teacher s salaries. Doctoral programmes are financed to some extent by the ministry for Science and Technology 6 which is not legally in charge of the third cycle. The ministry finances scholarships and fees for doctoral students as well as research projects on which doctoral candidates can be embedded and therefore funded. The institutional distinction and distribution of responsibilities is not currently satisfying for all actors and joint agreements between the two ministries are being discussed. The 2005 Law on Higher Education created the National Council for Higher Education 7 (NCHE). The NCHE is a body outside the ministries, whose 16 members are appointed by the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia. It main role is to develop and promote quality in higher education. Amongst other tasks, it follows the development of higher education in the Republic of Serbia and its harmonization with the European and international standards. It formulates several standards for quality self-assessment of higher education institutions, for accreditation of higher education institutions and study programs 8. The NCHE hosts the Commission for Accreditation and Quality Assurance (CAQA) 9. The Commission proposes the standards and procedures determined by the National Council such as standards and procedure of accreditation of higher education institutions, accreditation of study programs (of which doctoral programmes), selfassessment and quality evaluation of the higher education institutions. The CAQA accredited 173 doctoral programmes out of 222 applications. As of January 2010, the programmes accredited were 34% in the field of technical and technological sciences, 3 Tempus 4 Ministry of Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia, 2009, Scientific and Technological development strategy of the Republic of Serbia 2009 to 2014, Focus and Partner, Draft Strategy prepared for public debate, June Prof. Srdjan S. Stankovi, 2010, on the reform of doctoral studies in Serbia, Danube Rectors conference, University of Novi Sad, February Study on the organisation of doctoral studies in EU neighbouring countries - Serbia

7 31% in humanities and social sciences, 12% in medical sciences, 23% in natural sciences and mathematics. Serbia joined the Bologna process in September 2003, and the Law on Higher Education issued in 2005 gave a legal basis to the full implementation of the Bologna Declaration. Following the harmonisation process, Serbia has developed doctoral programmes since This means none but a few doctoral candidates graduated under the new regime. Universities and faculties are relatively autonomous in creating their doctoral programmes. However, programmes have to be accredited by the CAQA. 2.2 Doctoral programmes structure Definition of doctoral programmes Doctoral programmes are aimed at scientific research and independent creative activities in the area of research or development, or independent theoretical and creative activities in the area of fine arts. Doctoral programmes are completed by the doctoral examination, which includes the presentation and defence of a doctoral thesis. The doctoral dissertation is the final part of the study program at the doctoral programmes, except doctors of arts, which is an artistic program. The processes and steps for the preparation and defence of the doctoral dissertation is regulated in general by LHE. The thesis must contain original and published results, or results accepted for publication in scientific magazines in SCI list. PhD candidates, apart from independent research, have to attend taught courses, to pass exams, publish scientific articles on international level 10. Graduates of doctoral degree programmes are awarded the degree of doctor, abbreviated as PhD. Doctoral degree programmes are delivered by all HEIs university type Duration The doctoral programmes in Serbia are now aligned the Western Europe and shall have a standard length of three years or six semester. The period can be extended for three more years. The former Magister was 5-6 years. There is a concern that most doctoral candidates from the new regime will never manage to finish their doctoral programmes within the three years. In average, the real duration of doctoral programmes shall rather be 5 to 6 years, that is to say the twice as long as the theoretical length. Candidates benefiting from the ministry of Science and technology fellowships have to reimburse the grants if the doctorate is not completed within four years. The fellowships are supposed to allow the candidates to fully commit to the studies. Since the reform was only implemented since 2006 on some faculties and later in 2007 and 2008 in others, only a little number of candidates graduated under the new model. Some of the recently graduated started under the old Magister model and switched to the new system. Candidates have to register every year and the registration depends on the level of achievement of research work and exams. 10 Bologna report 2009 Study on the organisation of doctoral studies in EU neighbouring countries - Serbia 3

8 2.2.3 Funding The doctoral programmes are not free for doctoral candidates. An broadly speaking, doctoral programmes are paid by candidates through tuition fees. Universities have the autonomy to decide on the tuition fees. Broadly speaking universities are autonomous to create some rules but it has to remain within the LHE. In faculties, in the field of technical sciences, a year is about is The defence of the doctoral thesis is an additional In total, for the whole studies the cost is less than In math or tourism, agriculture fees are a little bit less. Generally, a year is between 750 to 3,500. In the past, most doctoral candidates use to be employees in faculties and research institutes. They would then receive a salary. Today some candidates can have teaching assistants positions (in that case they do not pay the fees), otherwise, they are merely students. As explained earlier, only the ministry for Science and Technology offer support to doctoral candidates. For instance, the ministry for Science and Technology has funded 250 scholarships through a call for proposals. Scholarships amount dinars ( 307) plus 11, 500 dinars ( 110) for research costs that are directly paid to the PhD host institution. The candidate can use this money only for research purposes. The scholarships were broken down into 20 % to basic sciences (Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics and Mechanics), 4% to Medical sciences, 26% for social and human sciences (Geo Science, Social sciences, History, Archaeology and Ethnology, Literature and Language) and 50% to technological sciences (Engineering and industrial software, ICT, electronics and telecommunications, Transportation, construction, architecture and management, Materials and chemical technology, Energy technology, Bioengineering and biotechnology). In addition to scholarships, the ministry for Science and Technology can provide scholarships for doctoral candidates as they are engaged in research projects funded by the ministry. Candidates get stipends ( dinars, about 307). Candidates benefiting from the ministry for Science and Technology support usually get cuts in tuition fees. The funding of doctoral programmes is a serious issue in Serbia. At this moment, only 0.3% of the GDP is devoted to science and research and 3.6% goes to education. The ministry for education has a target of investing up to 6% in education by Several options to solve the doctoral programmes problem are under consideration between the ministry of Education and the ministry of Science and Technology: one ministry could pay a certain number of tuition fees and the other ministry would fund scholarships. Another option would be to have all PhD students included in research projects. The funding question comes along with the status issue. If the doctoral students receive a scholarship, they remain students and cannot contract a credit for instance. On the other side, if s/he receives a salary from a research project he would be able to do so, as an employee. A new cycle of funded research projects was launch in the spring One of the 20 general criteria to meet for selection is the quality of training of young researchers, in particular of doctoral students Faculty of science and engineering Novi Sad University 12 source: interviews. UNESCO IUS data for 2008 is 4.7% of DGP for education. As a comparison, Belgium spent 6% of its GDP to education. 4 Study on the organisation of doctoral studies in EU neighbouring countries - Serbia

9 Even though the situation is not yet solved for doctoral candidates, nor seem to be a strong political priority, the situation of doctoral candidates is an issue for the Serbian Science and Technology policy which is getting more attention. Recently, money was raised by the government to invest in higher education and research in the forthcoming years (e.g. EIB loan of 200 million in March 2010 to fund infrastructure and buildings notably) Doctoral candidate status Doctoral candidates have the status of students according to the Law on Higher education. Some doctoral candidates, as teaching assistant have a combination of several status: students and employees Doctoral candidates rights All the rights related to maternity leave, family friendly conditions etc., are not ruled at the national level. Only universities are able to give some rights to doctoral students. Usually doctoral candidates do not have any special benefits other than social security coverage as all other citizens. One problem related to doctoral candidates is the student age limit in the currently ruling Law of Health Care (26 years old) above which one cannot benefit anymore from the students social security coverage as one is considered as unemployed. Healthcare will then be provided in the city of origin of the doctoral student (which can be another city than the one of the studies). If a doctoral candidate has to stop its research (for health problem, pregnancy, ) the ministry of Science and Technology allows to freeze the student status for a year. But it will stop to pay scholarships. As for the participation in decision making bodies, doctoral students involvement is the same as for the rest of students Organisation of doctoral programmes Since 2006, doctoral programmes are organised in structured programmes (including taught courses, exams, etc,.). The private sector is not involved in the organisation of doctoral programmes. 2.3 Doctoral programmes content Research The time spent on research varies according to the structure of the doctoral programme. Usually, the hands-on research is done in the second part of the three years programmes. The three first semesters would be devoted to courses (see 2.3.2) and the last three to research. The thesis subject can be a proposal from the doctoral candidate or can come from the supervisor. The final decision over the thesis subject comes from the Scientific board at the university level Ministry for Science and technology, 2010, Act on selection, evaluation and funding of programme of basic research, programme of research in the field of technological development, programme of cofunding of integrated and interdisciplinary research and the programme of providing and maintaining scientific research equipment and scientific research facilities for the research cycle University of Belgrade Study on the organisation of doctoral studies in EU neighbouring countries - Serbia 5

10 Research can be carried out in Universities (faculties), in research centre of institutes. Research is organised differently according to the faculties Training during doctoral programmes besides research The training period during doctoral programmes is organised differently from one faculty to the other but training is an important part of the doctoral programmes. In some programmes, the candidates may have up to the whole first year devoted to courses (for instance in some programmes of the Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy of Belgrade). Some interviewees have even considered there were too many courses in some doctoral programmes. During the first semester of the second year, there is a final exam that closes this first phase of study. Then the work on doctoral dissertation can began. Another example of structured courses from the University of Novi Sad shows that a doctoral candidate shall spend the three first semesters of the studies in training and exams (seven in total) and the last three in writing the thesis. The first semester is devoted to methodology (how to perform doctoral research, how to write a thesis). Then the candidate has to go through 5 to 6 exams are related to the candidate research topic. The last exam is a general examination of knowledge 15. As for training courses topics, it seems that most faculties would leave the candidate to choose between the teaching sessions. However, faculties are limited in the courses they offer by the number of professors that are able to accomplish the courses. Most of the transferable/generic skills 16 are developed through lecturing and cooperation with supervisors/ mentors 17. There are not yet dedicated sessions for transferable skills. Interdisciplinary training and the development of transferable skills are integrated in some doctoral study programs (e.g. Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Belgrade, ACIMSI Novi Sad etc. ) Teaching during doctoral programmes besides research Doctoral candidates can be teaching assistants, but it is not mandatory. By the new law, teaching assistants must be doctoral students. One can be selected as teaching assistant two times, each time 3 years. It is compliant with the maximal time for PhD studies (6 years). As in other countries, it seems that a large majority of candidates, specifically in social and human sciences work besides doing their research, as teaching assistant or outside academia. It was reported that the tasks of teaching assistants were leaving little time to perform research. It results that doctoral candidates work the double time, doing their research and doing their teaching. 15 University of Novi Sad, Faculty of engineering 16 Writing and communication skills; networking and team-working; material/human resources and financial management; leadership skills; time management; career management including job-seeking techniques, entrepreneurship (start a business) 17 University of Belgrade 18 Bologna report Study on the organisation of doctoral studies in EU neighbouring countries - Serbia

11 2.4 Doctoral programmes process: admission, supervision, monitoring and assessment Admission/ recruitment With the accreditation of programmes, rules were set regarding the requirements for being admitted to doctoral programmes. The admission to a doctoral programme is conditional to the completion of a master s degree programme (prior achievement at least 300 ECTS credits) Supervision system Every doctoral student has one mentor, member of the university staff and that takes full responsibility for the real management and supervision of the student training and research project 19. Professor are limited to 5 PhD candidates at the same time. There are criteria for mentorship: Mentor has at least five scientific works published or accepted for publication in scientific magazines of the related area of the study program from the list of the ministry in charge of science in the last 10 years 20. However, disciplines have specificities. For instance, in mathematics, the mentor has minimum three works on SCI list (criterion applicable as of ) and five works from SCI list (criterion applicable as of ), in Humanistic sciences, mentors shall have at least three works published or accepted for publication in the magazine on SSCI list (criterion applicable as of ) and in technological/ technical sciences, there is a requirement of at least three works from SCI list (criterion applicable as of ) and five works from SCI list (criterion applicable as of ). The new criteria for mentorship tend to reduce the potential number of mentors. Mentors are also not distributed equally according to discipline. For instance in social science and humanities, researchers do publish in their national language so they do not publish in international journals, which is a criteria for mentoring. According to the law, the principal investigator in a research institute is not entitled to be mentor. It has to be co-mentor with a professor from a university. Mentorship face a demographic problem. Most of professors are aged and many of them shall retire soon. In the 1990 s, young researchers left the country and the age pyramid is not balanced. By law, research go on retirement at 65 plus 3 years to finish their research. By 68, most of them will be in retirement. Moreover, it was reported that the transition from the old system to the other was difficult for some of the Serbian professors. First of all, mentors do not have enough time with the students. Then all mentors, professors are teaching students in primary studies. They are carrying out their own research and they are not paid for their mentorship whereas the requirements are more important than before (or symbolic amounts as reported by interviewees Doctoral thesis and defence The process and steps for the preparation and defence of dissertation is regulated in general by LHE. The doctoral dissertation is the final part of the study program at the doctoral programmes, except doctors of arts, which is an artistic program. PhD 19 Prof V. Dondur, 2010, Accreditation of doctoral study programmes in Serbia, Danube Rectors conference, University of Novi Sad, February 20 National Council of Higher Education, 2006, Rules and regulation standards and procedures for Higher Education institutions and their study programme Study on the organisation of doctoral studies in EU neighbouring countries - Serbia 7

12 candidates, apart from independent research, have to attend taught courses, to pass exams, publish scientific articles on international level 21. The jury is appointed by the Faculty/University. It usually consists of five members. Supervisors/mentors usually are members of jury. The jury is not opened to the private sector. All members of jury has the right to vote. Before submitting the thesis, the candidate must comply with a formal requirement under the form of a scientific contribution (minimum one published paper on SCI list) Quality assurance mechanisms Quality assurance begin with the accreditation process. Rules and regulation standards and procedures for Higher Education institutions and their study programme was issued by the National Council of Higher Education in It sets the rules that shall be respected by the HEI in order to open a programme. The accreditation of doctoral programmes happened in several batch since acts of warning were delivered to programmes that failed at first to meet the requirements. All in all, 52% of programmes received an act of warning. For the study programmes and HEI, a self-evaluation will be carried out every three years. The participation of Serbia to two international projects (Tempus and the Council of Europe) allowed to be well prepared with the study of foreign examples. 2.5 After the graduation Precise data do not exist at the national level on the situation of doctors after graduation. Data may rather be available at the level of faculties but may not be transferred at the university level. One of the problem is that universities remain umbrellas institution and faculties are independents bodies that do not systematically transfer information to the university. The ministry for Science and Technology is trying to promote an integrated functioning. Faculties are not formally required to set up alumni organisations. However, it has developed the last 10 years. They may be already five alumni organisation in Serbia. However these are not specific to the doctoral level. The ministry of Science and Technology has developed a public database of researchers 23. It seems that after they get their degree, most of doctors would wish to stay within the same university. However, the situation is changing with the opening of new private universities that need to hire teaching staff. A small proportion of PhDs use to go to national companies (oil, transport, railways). Salaries are higher in the public sector than in the private sector unlike in other countries. Nowadays, most of people working in private companies have Master or BA degrees, but not the PD degrees. Broadly speaking, the links between universities and enterprises is low. There is a remaining brain drain problem in Serbia. Even though it is less considerable than in the 1990 s, the brain drain phenomenon affects Serbian students at the Master level. 21 Bologna University of Belgrade Study on the organisation of doctoral studies in EU neighbouring countries - Serbia

13 3. International collaboration, mobility and joint doctoral degrees 3.1 International cooperation data Serbia is deeply engaged in international cooperation and the actors met stressed the necessity for an even greater commitment to international programmes and joint studies. At the level of doctoral programmes, Serbia is participating in the SEE Doctoral programmes in Mathematical sciences Tempus IV programme together with Bosnia, Austria, Bulgaria, Greece, Albania and Montenegro. Serbia is also participating in the creation of the third cycle doctoral study in metrology also within a Tempus IV project (with FYRM, Croatia, Kosovo, Spain, Czech republic, Sweden, Germany, Italy, Austria) Integrated international relation offices are developing at the university level (for instance the university of Nis has two persons permanently employed and the university of Novi Sad has a five person office) while there are often administrative staff dealing with international relations within faculties. From the interviews, it seems that there is a great promotion work needed. It is difficult for integrated international offices to get a broad picture of joint programmes in faculties which results in a difficulty of steering at the university level. A good initiative is the support by the King Baudouin foundation 24 to the university of Novi Sad international relation office. The support is a grant and the financing of one person during three years solely dedicated to promote mobility within the university (full financial coverage the first two years and 50% the third year). This stress the need for increasing the number of human resources (administrative staff mostly) able to deal with EU and international cooperation programmes, that is to say staff that are familiar with specific cooperation language and codes, able to provide support in writing proposals for instance. 3.2 Foreigners as doctoral candidates There are very little foreigners coming in Serbia for doctoral programmes (probably less than 10% of the total even though statistics are lacking). They are mainly from countries of the former Yugoslavia. The requirements to admit foreigners are the same as for nationals. The credit system recognition is in place so foreign diplomas are recognised. However, foreigners do not benefit from the same rights and funding that the national nor from the same salary and contracts. Foreigners can apply to national grants but there are very few funding available. Foreign doctoral degrees are also recognised in Serbia (at the institutional level) as well as in the job market. 3.3 National doctoral candidates going abroad Even though Serbia is engaged in mobility, several barriers could hinder the mobility of Serbian doctoral candidates. These constraints are generic to all doctoral candidates most of the time regardless their nationality: First it was reported that most students were not informed enough on the EU programmes; 24 Study on the organisation of doctoral studies in EU neighbouring countries - Serbia 9

14 Then PhD student that are also teaching assistant have more difficulties in entering an exchange programme because of their teaching duties or the negative opinion from the mentor; If a candidate is older, leaving their families is also an obstacle to mobility; Finally, the cost of mobility is maybe the strongest deterrent. 4. Challenges and possible future policy actions Serbia has acknowledged an in-depth reform of doctoral programmes that has brought many changes and improvements. Some comments were raised on the contrast between the ambition of the reforms and the available means (financial and human). It is worth noticing that Serbia is also ranking the higher education and research issue very high on the agenda, as proved by the numerous conferences dealing with the subject and the strategy for scientific and technological development 25. However, Serbia still faces several key challenges impacting on the development of doctoral programmes: 1. Funding of doctoral programmes Funding is the major issue for the development of doctoral programmes 26. As indicated in the Strategy for Scientific and Technological Development, the challenge is to secure reliable long-term resources for doctoral programmes, to develop centres of excellence and to improve the living conditions for researchers. This requires tax and budgetary incentives whilst the country is facing the world s economic crisis The demographic issue The demographic issue has consequences over the organisation of doctoral programmes in two ways: i) human resources is lacking, ii) elderly academics have more problems with implementing the new system. Another problem is the brain drain. Some students leave Serbia after the Master degree which is a big issues for straightening the scientific human resource of the country. 3. Increase the critical mass in research With the development of PhD programmes, each university is able to develop its own programmes. Since the country is relatively small in size, there is a real necessity to achieve a critical mass in specific areas in order to be visible, internationally. The Strategy for Science and Technology tries to pursue that goal of streamlining the organisation of research and narrowing down options around seven research priorities. Then doctoral programmes should be organised according to these priorities. It may required a more centralised vision of doctoral programmes organised at the university level instead of the faculty level. 4. Increased industry-academia relations Prof. Srdjan S. Stankovi, 2010, on the reform of doctoral studies in Serbia, Danube Rectors conference, University of Novi Sad, February 27 Ministry of Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia, 2009, Scientific and Technological development strategy of the Republic of Serbia 2009 to 2014, Focus and Partner, Draft Strategy prepared for public debate, June 10 Study on the organisation of doctoral studies in EU neighbouring countries - Serbia

15 The industry in Serbia is rather weak economically. Before the war, the industry sector was more oriented towards internal market and was not ready to open the frontiers. In order to strengthen and become more competitive the industry sector needs to develop innovations. However, one problem that doctors may not be attracted by the private sector. Indeed, in Serbia contrary to other countries, salaries are higher in the public sector than in the private sector. The ministry for Science and Technology expressed the objective of strengthening the links between academia and industry. It was noticed that the Tempus, Erasmus programmes, were only addressing teaching and academia. Some of the challenges can be solved internally by adapting the Law on Higher Education and the corresponding By-Laws. But in order to face Serbian challenges 28, the EU could provide support in different ways: By developing and implementing international joint degrees of doctoral study programmes in order to share infrastructures and methodologies By promoting and supporting the PhD students and staff mobility to make the system of higher education more flexible and responsive to the needs of the labour market and of the knowledge society By offering the means to develop more effective mechanisms to integrate international research cooperation : this relates to the training of human recourses that deal with the management and participation to EU and international programmes. Human resources trained could be teachers but also the administrative staff of HEI. Strengthening collaboration with industry: this is a difficult challenge to cope with but the development of networks such as the Marie Curie Networks could help Another issue was raised concerning the amount of funding EU provided to measures such as curriculum development (at the PhD level) that benefit to a limited number of doctoral candidates. It seems that the needs nowadays are more geared towards structural, national or region wide measures such as the development of inter and intra university centres for doctoral programmes (Doctoral Schools). 28 Prof V. Dondur, 2010, Accreditation of doctoral study programmes in Serbia, Danube Rectors conference, University of Novi Sad, February Study on the organisation of doctoral studies in EU neighbouring countries - Serbia 11

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17 Appendix A - List of interviewees Figure 2 List of interviewees Name Position Organisation Contact details Milos Nedeljkovic State secretary Ministry of Science milos.nedeljkovic@nauk a.gov.rs Prof. Radivoje Mitrovic Marija Filipovic Ozegovic State secretary Ministry of education Radivoje.mitrovic@mp.g ov.rs National co-ordinator National Tempus Office office@tempus.ac.rs Sojika Dukic Project Officer National Tempus Office office@tempus.ac.rs Prof. Vera Dondur LJiljana Damjanov Prof. Dr Neda Bokan Prof Dr. Vesna Lopicic Prof. Soldatic Dr. Obradovic Prof. Veskovic Silvia Ghilezan Dalibor Bojana Faculty of Physical Chemistry Head of the department/ Department for Studies and Scientific and Educational Activities University of Belgrade University of Belgrade damjalj@rect.bg.ac.rs Vice-rector for Education University of Belgrade neda@rect.bg.ac.rs Vice - Rector for International cooperation Vice-Dean for International relations Faculty of Philology Vice-Dean Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy University of NIS University of Belgrade University of Belgrade vesna.lopicic@ni.ac.rs soldatic@nadlanu.com Rector University of Novi Sad rektorat@uns.ac.rs Tempus III project coordinator University of Novi Sad veskovic@uns.ac.rs gsilvia@uns.ns.ac.rs Slobodan Radicev Prof. Teodor Atanackovic Ivana Vujkov Prof. Subotic Ljiljana President of PhD student and young researchers association of University of Novi Sad Department of Mechanics Faculty of Technical Sciences International relations office Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy University of Novi Sad University of Novi Sad University of Novi Sad University of Novi Sad office@doktoranti.org atanackovic@uns.ns.ac.r s ivanavuj@uns.ac.rs dekan@ff.uns.ac.rs Dragisa Zunic Former Marie Curie beneficiary Novi Sad Study on the organisation of doctoral studies in EU neighbouring countries - Serbia 13

18 Appendix B - Bibliography Bologna Process, 2008, Template national report , Serbia Danube Rectors Conference, University of Novi Sad, 2010 February, Law on Higher education, 2005, Ministry of Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia, 2009, Scientific and Technological development strategy of the Republic of Serbia 2009 to 2014, Focus and Partner, Draft Strategy prepared for public debate, June Ministry for Science and technology, 2010, Act on selection, evaluation and funding of programme of basic research, programme of research in the field of technological development, programme of co-funding of integrated and interdisciplinary research and the programme of providing and maintaining scientific research equipment and scientific research facilities for the research cycle National Council of Higher Education, 2006, Rules and regulation standards and procedures for Higher Education institutions and their study programme 14 Study on the organisation of doctoral studies in EU neighbouring countries - Serbia

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